Life & Style reporter

Once the Love Boat set a course for adventure and its single passengers' minds on new romances. Today the Love Jet is taking over where the TV show cruise ship left off.

The Love Jet took flight on Valentine's Day, travelling from Sydney to the Gold Coast to see whether the 22 singles on board could find love in the air.

Combining aspects of speed dating, online dating and group socialising, the singles - aged between 30 and 40 - were set up on nine dates each throughout the day.

Love Jet singles. Photo: Andrew Maccoll

One, Nathan, said he was nervous. ''Trying to find someone you connect with is the hardest thing,'' he said. Plus, ''There's no escape route.''

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For Natalia, first impressions were underwhelming. ''When I first saw the group I didn't like it,'' she said. ''I thought they'd be better looking.'' But, for others, the day was looking just fine. ''One guy came up and started speaking to me as soon as I got here and I thought he was so good looking, so that was a good start to the day,'' said Sophia.

The first two dates of the day, over a fizz-fuelled, pre-flight breakfast, helped to soothe the butterflies and lower defences. The brave and bubbly bunch were noticeably chattier after a few glasses of sparkling wine and after adjusting to the large media contingent around them.

The group, all members of the Fairfax Media-owned RSVP online dating site who had applied to be a part of the day, were randomly matched with different people for the flight and bus legs of the trip.

A spokeswoman said: ''RSVP can confirm that there was a lot of number swapping happening at the airport yesterday afternoon … and there was at least one date set up.''